Archive for October, 2010

Annnndddd I lost my good lead with this blog. Well, to be frank, I expected it. Things have been crazy here, trying to accomplish everything one possible senior can manage from week to week. This past weekend was especially busy, as my aunt, uncle, and cousin came up from Maryland to visit! I wanted to be able to hang out with them and not be spending the entire weekend doing homework, hence the silent, but mad rush.

It worked out nicely and I was able to enjoy a wonderful three days with family! We ate entirely too much food, hung out, and chopped almost two cords of wood together on Sunday. Saturday we spent with friends and family and went to Weston to visit the country store, which my family hadn’t been to and I hadn’t seen in years. We walked around for a few hours, enjoying all the fun novelties and Vermont foods before heading to Manchester’s Northshire Book Store. We went their ultimately for the food, with the books being a bonus 😉 They have the BEST grilled cheese sandwiches I have ever eaten! Whatever cheese and bread you want with Applewood Smoked bacon……my mouth is watering all over again! I didn’t buy any books, but of course I found hundreds of ones I would have liked to (I just can’t bring myself to buy books at full price when I fill a bag of them for a dollar over the summer…plus, it’s not like I don’t have enough).

Monday……was Monday. One of these days I swear, I’m going to have a good Monday. I am taking off after my Thursday evening class this week to head to Montpelier. My sister is giving a presentation at a conference and I want to be there for her. It will be nice, as we are sticking around all day Friday to check out the town and relax a little.

I am so excited that it’s almost Halloween weekend!!!! We are hitting the Rutland parade on Saturday night and a friend is having a party on Sunday night. I have my costumes all figured out and pieced together….I am soooooo excited for my second costume, but I’m not telling what it is yet…..more after the Halloween weekend, I swear! There will be lots of pictures, I promise!!

It’s fall break here at GMC and everyone needed it. For four glorious days, I can breathe. Homework will be on the mind of course, but for just a little while it will take a back-burner. Instead, more important and lasting things will take center stage for a while – friends, family, food, fun, and a few frights.

A day out in the woods...

Saturday:

We took some time and went for a hike on the Adirondack trail to see Thundering Falls in

Look! I found a hippy!

Killington with friends. It was a little chilly, but it was so nice to get out and do something different. I took lots of pictures and we had a blast trying not to get lost!

We did a short stint of shopping and food before heading home for witch pictures! The rad costumes, ideas, and gut-busting laughs of a hobby between friends is all we ever need to make a weekend special.

Sunday: We helped a friend pull his boat in from the water and took one last trip around the lake until next year. It was kind of sad, but it also means that ice skating and walks on the lake will be just around the corner. After that, we headed to Rut-Vegas to do a little car shopping. We’re in the market for some new wheels, as all of ours are slowly, but surely careening towards the edge of their chop-shop grave. A little bit of homework was in order after that, but how could I accomplish anything when it’s still my weekend?

Monday: Witch costumes again! Well, actually, we spent all day doing what we girls do best – spending money! We checked out Wal-Mart’s Halloween costume section and my sister wound up buying another fun colored wig and a mask. Next, we finally made it to the Party Store where the Spirit of Halloween Costume store was supposed to be. We were so disappointed that it wasn’t in the mall anymore. It was even more disappointing in the Party Store…..there were about three isles total and all of the costumes had to be selected from a picture board. With our dreams of amazing super-duper costumes dashed, we headed back to K-Mart in the mall.

You know it’s saying a lot when the two isles of K-Mart is our best bet for costumes around here. Even so, my sister and my best friend managed to find their costumes for this year’s party. I think we will try to keep the tradition alive with the witch costumes at the parade, but we all wanted to have a second option. My sister will be showing up as a spunky Eskimo, while my friend will be an evil Alice from Alice And Wonderland.

Myself……well, I couldn’t find anything that really right, but I believe with one purchase and a little tweaking of some items I have at home, I might be able to pull something off 🙂 I’ll explain if it works. For now, it’s more planning and back to school for now. My midterm grades are out and one of them…..well, it wasn’t what I was expecting, so I guess my perfectionist self will be miffed for a few days, and than just have to deal.

This weekend was one of those diamond in the rough wonders – sometimes, you have to look below all the superficial and craptacular moments (yeah, it’s a word! *in the new internet dictionary that is…I’ve been waiting to be able to use this in a blog post). I don’t want to use this blog for complaining because, let’s face it, I do enough of that offline as it is. So, I’m going to highlight most of the more shining moments this weekend….and use my next post to complain about all the other things (who am I kidding? My life and this blog would be a total bore if I left out all the exciting and debilitating stories).

Saturday:

It was such a beautiful fall day, especially after the wet and miserable week we had, that my sister and I couldn’t resist

My sister and her dog out for a strole!

taking a little time to go for a hike. For once, I wasn’t hidden behind a mountain of homework (well, at least I didn’t think I was…..then.) and the fresh air was calling us. We packed up my camera with extra batteries, a pistol (it’s Vermont people and things bite in the woods, so if need be, we have the ability to shoot it and make it’s day a hell of a lot worse than ours would have been), a scarf around the neck of our dog (it’s hunting season and he is the spitting image of a young deer), and a walking stick before heading out.

We just hiked through the woods in back of our house and followed the stream. It was nice because we did something I don’t believe we have tried since we were really little – have you ever played “Pooh-Sticks”? Winnie The Pooh and his best friend Piglet would stand on a bridge and throw sticks into the water on one side and see whose came out first on the other side. We didn’t have a bridge, but the idea was the same. It was fun to act like a kid again and get so much enjoyment out of something so simple!

Playing Pooh Sticks....

When we got back, we put away our hiking stuff and pulled out some very different equipment and practiced fencing! No, not the farming kind, silly – sword fighting. GMC has a Fencing club on campus that my sister and I joined for a time and we both became really interested. We ended up buying masks, jackets, and our own gloves to practice with. It’s a bunch of fun and good exercise. I love being able to say “I fence” when people ask what sport I like to play 🙂

Sunday:

Ah, a little back-story: our house is very old and so is practically everything in it, including our stove. However, recently it has taken a downward turn and we decided it needed to be replaced. SO, we looked and looked and finally bought a new stove. Unfortunately, we had to get our new stove out of the kitchen and the new one in. So, we spent much of Sunday morning rearranging the furniture in preparation.

Next, we headed to our friend’s house for one last boat ride on Lake Bomoseen before it is put away for winter. We spent about an hour before-hand planning a giant Halloween party that I am so happy to be a part of! Halloween is my favorite holiday, as you can tell from this video I made of myself and friends in our costumes!

The boat ride was next, as we tried to enjoy the moment while our faces froze. It was nice when we docked at the Lakehouse Bar and Grille and all got a nice hot cider before getting back on the boat and heading for shore on the other side of the lake. After that, we had lunch, purchased from Castleton’s Blue Cat Bistro. All in all, a good weekend.

On a side note, I almost had the chance to go to Salem in time for Halloween fun, but it would not have worked with my school schedule, so I guess it will be one opportunity that I miss this year. Instead, that weekend will be spent watching Rutland’s epic Halloween parade, enjoying an amazing party, and preparing for an exam that Monday. Alas, there is always a little good with the bad:)